Tubi, a Fox-owned FAST service, unveiled today it will integrate Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) product into its audience-measuring arsenal. Tubi will use Nielsen DAR to expand audience measurement across a variety of streaming devices – including computers, smartphones and connected TV.
Advertisers can leverage Nielsen DAR to better understand the demographic and interest-based attributes of Tubi’s audience. The DAR integration, an expansion of Tubi’s existing partnership with Nielsen, includes features like co-viewing measurement and the buying of target audiences.
“In this increasingly fragmented media landscape, the need for independent measurement is more critical than ever, as is providing more transparency to advertisers,” said Ameneh Atai, general manager of digital audience measurement at Nielsen, in a statement. “Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings delivers audience measurement metrics across computers, smartphones, tablets and connected TV, providing campaign insights across digital media platforms and a deeper understanding of the unique reach of Tubi's target audiences.”
Tubi isn’t the first distributor to integrate Nielsen DAR. Roku, which last year acquired Nielsen’s Advanced Video Advertising (AVA) business, integrated Nielsen DAR onto its ad-buying platform OneView.
Although Nielsen lost its industry accreditations last September due to allegations of unreliable data, it’s still maintained a foothold in the audience measurement space. Nielsen earlier this week expanded its smart TV data deal with Vizio – tapping into about 400 local U.S. markets, and is also backing Roku’s launch of media mix modeling capabilities for its Measurement Partner Program.
“As a movie and television streaming service with 80% of our viewers watching on TV screens, we’re excited about the proposed integration of Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings measurement across our device partners,” said Tubi CRO Mark Rotblat. “This upcoming device coverage replaces slim proxies with comprehensive and stable currency-grade measurement, allowing our advertisers to transact on audiences in a way that is apples-to-apples with traditional TV.”
Nielsen DAR offers Tubi an opportunity to better analyze its growing audience footprint. Tubi reported 3.6 billion hours streamed in 2021, up 40% year over year in total viewing time. Last November, Tubi was made available on LG smart TVs across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.